Assuming you’re right and experts who seek to influence policy do mostly just replace other expert opinion, then the “let’s use our expertise to influence policymakers” aspect of EA does not meaningfully make decision-making more technocratic, making the debate between technocracy vs populism only be relevant to EA in the context of ‘promoting evidence based policy’, but not to the major EA cause areas. That changes my mind and makes me think the technocracy vs populism debate is not a crucial consideration for EA, since it is only important for a minor EA cause area.
If you anyone else reading this has also worked in government and has an opinion on whether experts seeking to influence policymakers mostly replace the opinion of other experts, I’d be interested to hear it!
Thanks for your insight.
Assuming you’re right and experts who seek to influence policy do mostly just replace other expert opinion, then the “let’s use our expertise to influence policymakers” aspect of EA does not meaningfully make decision-making more technocratic, making the debate between technocracy vs populism only be relevant to EA in the context of ‘promoting evidence based policy’, but not to the major EA cause areas. That changes my mind and makes me think the technocracy vs populism debate is not a crucial consideration for EA, since it is only important for a minor EA cause area.
If you anyone else reading this has also worked in government and has an opinion on whether experts seeking to influence policymakers mostly replace the opinion of other experts, I’d be interested to hear it!